If you are one of those people who likes their music in neat boxes, demarcated and sorted, tied up with a neat generic ribbon and labeled with past sonic tribal associations, then you will have met your match with the wonderfully named Witty Tarbox. I mean, I do this for a living, and they have me confused.
But that is the whole point, isn’t it? If music can be succinctly summed up or labeled according to an existing genre, then you probably have heard it all before. Midnight Sun is like little you will have heard before.
That said, there are plenty of elements found here that you will already be familiar with – a sound or style or scene that echoes out from the past – but it is the way that they put these together that is the real trick. Or put another way, the building blocks might not be new, but the sonic architecture is mesmerizingly original.
If ‘Whippoorwill’ kicks off with a wonderfully ramshackle slice of back porch, back woods, rootsy, alternative bluegrass, replete with Jew’s Harp, whistles, and handclaps, don’t assume that you know where this album is going. It is not where you think…it is never where you think. ‘Holy Cadillac’ sounds like Buddy Holly playing a punk version of ‘Not Fade Away’ in church; ‘Lake Effect Surf’ wanders through squalling, psychedelic wig-outs; and ‘Last Call’ draws a line between early rock ‘n’ roll and early punk.
The more I write, the more I confuse myself about what this mercurial and eclectic band sounds like. Suffice it to say that Midnight Sun is a sax-soaked, surf-infused, alt-rock roller coaster. It is ragged and radiant, mad and melodic, fun and frenetic, wild and most wonderful. There is hardly an established genre they don’t run through; there are more than a few they have made up along the way, and while every song is different, they are all connected by a sort of free-wheeling sense of sonic adventure that binds the band together.
See, I bet you still don’t have a clue what to expect. Good! Just buy the damned album, you’ll thank me.
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